Dimension Data has expanded the parameters of business operation for the insurance industry by designing, developing and implementing a Financial Services Exchange for the Life Offices Association (LOA).
Three major members of the LOA - Sanlam, Liberty Life and Old Mutual - backed the project, designed to streamline communications with the LOA and ensure easy assess to information for financial services advisers and insurance brokers. Dimension Data was awarded the project due to the group`s ability to manage all areas of the project - from conception, through design and integration, to implementation and hosting. In addition, Dimension Data`s global services expertise, particularly in the middleware arena, combined with its leading systems integration skills made the group the natural e-business partner of choice for the project.
The cost-saving exchange, termed Astute, provides a single gateway point for brokers to access multiple data via the Internet. Phase One - Consolidated Client Portfolio (CCP) - went live in July, following extensive integration testing with the three major Life Offices and pilot testing with selected intermediaries and broker houses.
"The project demanded complex integration and connectivity solutions to meet the LOA`s requirements to provide any-to-any and many-to-many communication between brokers and Life Offices," says Don Cummings, portfolio manager at Dimension Data.
CCP gives brokers and Life Offices access via the Internet to life and risk related investment information such as whole life, endowment, annuity and income protection policies. It also allows brokers to implement a financial needs analysis in order to review clients` portfolio requirements quickly and easily. "Implementation of CCP involved developing a Web front-end, the building of a complete switching infrastructure, providing hosting of the infrastructure and the development of a 24-hour call centre facility," says Cummings.
The system allows for brokers to access the FSE switch online, it controls transactions and handles interfaces between Life Offices at the back end. "The project also incorporates security mechanisms to authenticate and validate users of the system, provides billing and reporting systems and includes user registration functionality," continues Cummings.
"In future, the FSE will also broaden to include other financial services components," he says. "Interfaces with the South African Revenue Services and to banks will also be developed and integrated going forward.
"It is envisaged that most of the remaining Life Offices, 34 in total, will be integrated with the initial three who instigated the project within the first 12 months of Phase One," says Cummings. "The system then becomes wholly owned by its users within the financial services industry."
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Dimension Data Holdings plc (LSE: DDT), is a leading technology company that represents a new category of systems integrator providing network and multi-channel e-Business solutions to global corporations. Founded in 1983 as a specialist supplier of technology and services, Dimension Data`s strategy has evolved with the emergence of the intelligent network as the most important enabler in business today. Dimension Data`s global presence combined with its expertise and extensive skills base in network infrastructure and e-business solutions environments enables its customers to ascend into the global marketplace through 100% connectivity and integration. With a primary listing in London and also listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Dimension Data operates in over 30 countries on six continents. For more information, please go to www.didata.com
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